Federal Tax Advisory

If your company invests in developing new or improved products or processes, you may qualify for the research and development (R&D) tax credit. The R&D tax credit is a tax incentive that significantly subsidizes R&D investments and is available to most taxpayers. Recent developments have made R&D credits more accessible to companies. In addition, many states have R&D credits of their own that further subsidize the cost of investing in R&D. 

Our R&D Tax Credit professionals have backgrounds in engineering, data science, legal research, tax, project management, and audit controversy. Our team has deep experience completing studies for any size company—from large multinational corporations to small family-owned businesses.

We utilize a phased approach that allows our clients to assess the applicability of the R&D credit before committing to an entire study. Our objective is to customize an approach to help achieve results that meet your business needs. 

Your company’s real estate holdings constitute a large capital investment. An engineering-based real estate cost segregation study may provide significant tax savings by accelerating tax depreciation deductions, deferring taxes, and increasing cash flow. Buildings that have been purchased, constructed, renovated, or expanded in recent years may qualify for this powerful tax planning tool. The FORVIS cost segregation team can evaluate your fixed assets to identify cost segregation opportunities and complete the required analysis to claim the benefits. 

Our team of engineers and fixed asset specialists can help identify portions of a building’s cost that can be allocated to shorter depreciable lives (generally five, seven, or 15 years) as opposed to the standard 27.5- or 39-year life. This reclassification allows the building owner to accelerate depreciation, defer income tax, and increase cash flow.

Our team of engineers, construction professionals, and accountants stay abreast of the latest rules to identify where your company qualifies for a shorter depreciable life. Contact us today to find out how you could benefit from a cost segregation study.

Other tax services in the fixed asset services arena include: fixed asset outsourcing, IRC Section 179D (energy efficient commercial buildings deduction) studies, repairs and maintenance studies, and IRC 45L studies.

Our Tax Controversy and Procedure team has dedicated professionals focused on providing guidance and counsel on tax matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other taxing authorities. FORVIS’ Tax Controversy and Procedure team is comprised of experienced tax professionals with a wide range of backgrounds, including academia, legal, governmental, and private industry. Through the knowledge, experience, and dedication of our professionals, we offer practical advice and tools for navigating an examination, penalty defense, and other procedural issues. We work together with our clients to create an approach that is tailored to meet the goals and needs of our clients’ unique tax situations.

The Tax Controversy and Procedure team is here to provide both proactive and reactive strategies for our clients, including reducing risks to prevent a dispute from arising and representing clients in disputes with the IRS and other tax authorities. Accordingly, we are dedicated to defending our clients by skillfully navigating the complex, diverse processes and procedures before the IRS and other taxing authorities.  

Services Offered

Our team has successfully advocated for our clients on many different topics through a variety of channels. Accordingly, our team can assist you or your organization in a variety of matters, including:

• Examinations, including IRS Fast-Track Settlement
• IRS Appeals and Post Appeals Mediation
• Private Letter Ruling Assistance
• Penalty and Collections
• Risk Assessment for Tax Planning
• Tax Research
• Interest Netting
• Employee Shared Responsibility Payment (ESRP) Penalty Assistance
• A vast variety of other tax controversy and procedural matters.
   

Whether your business priorities are managing cash taxes through accelerating deductions or deferring revenue, mitigating risk, improving efficiency, or finding favorable positions in new or existing tax laws and regulations, accounting methods planning gives you options to address your needs. 

Our team of tax professionals will help you navigate the complex and evolving procedures of changing accounting methods while working with you to realize the associated benefits. We have experience with businesses of all sizes across many industries—recognizing and customizing tax planning strategies to your specific tax situation.

The accounting method services we provide focus on many different aspects of taxation, including: 

• Revenue recognition
• Uniform Capitalization (i.e., UNICAP, IRC 263A), valuation, identification, and other inventory issues
• IRC 174 – Research and Experimentation costs
• Capital Spending and Cost Recovery
• Accelerating prepaid expenses
• Proper timing of accrued expenses
• Overall methods of accounting (i.e., Accrual, Cash Receipts and Disbursements) and special methods of accounting (e.g., Long Term Contracts)
• Small business methods of accounting
• Changes in taxable year-end

Buying, selling, and merging of businesses gives rise to unique tax planning opportunities and responsibilities. Our team can assist with tax issues that occur before, during, and after a transaction. Tax merger and acquisition services include:

• Tax Structuring
• Parachute planning studies (IRC 280G)
• Transaction costs analysis
• NOL limitation calculation and planning (IRC 382)
• Debt modification analysis
• Bankruptcy tax planning
• Tax purchase accounting
• Transaction modeling
• Tax transaction reporting and disclosure
• Post-transaction tax integration

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act enacted on March 13, 2020, and is available through the quarter ending September 30, 2021 (through December 31, 2021 for a recovery startup business). The ERC is a refundable payroll tax credit of up to $5K per employee in 2020, and up to $7K per employee per quarter in 2021 (1st through 3rd quarters). The ERC is available to qualified businesses regardless of size or employee count and can be applied for retroactively regardless of whether a PPP loan has been received. A business is eligible for the ERC if they have experienced a significant disruption to their business due to government order restrictions (doesn’t have to be a closure) in 2020 or 2021, or a significant decline in gross receipts in 2020 or 2021 compared to 2019. It provides a great opportunity for businesses across all industries to receive cash refunds that will help them survive and emerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ERC team at FORVIS has assisted companies of all sizes evaluate eligibility and file for the credit with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Each engagement deliverable is tailored to the client’s specific fact pattern for both eligibility and credit generation, following the limited guidance the IRS has issued. 

FORVIS’ Tax Transformation approach begins with an assessment to identify clients’ inefficiencies and pain points. Our team—made up of professionals skilled in process design, tax software, project management and data analytics—conducts interviews to help evaluate the efficiency of a client’s tax function. Whether encompassing the complete tax cycle or a specific work stream (provision, budgeting, compliance, etc.), a customized assessment produces recommendations prioritized for the needs of the company. After this initial research and uncovering of areas for improvement, we provide our clients with a transformation roadmap that is a prioritized list of recommendations including estimated cost and return on investment for each project.

Our Tax Transformation services are tailored for each client’s objectives and can empower organizations to experience immediate and measurable results.

Increase Your ‘Tax Intelligence’ to:

• Shift to a strategic, proactive tax focus
• Reduce and manage risk
• Create nimble operations that are poised for change
• Improve data quality and access
• Create efficient procedures and processes
• Standardize internal controls
• Balance workload for team members, leaving time for analysis
• Close the gap following staff turnover
• Offer insightful reporting to management